Repost
| Synonyms: | Reupload |
| See also: | Deleting Fanworks |
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A repost is the upload of something online for a second or further time.
Reposting can be authorised (done with the original creator's permission), authorised and credited, unauthorised (done without the original creator's permission) and credited, or unauthorised and uncredited. The reasons people do authorised or credited reposting versus the reasons they do uncredited and unauthorised reposting can be quite different. Authorised or credited reposts are generally done to benefit both the original poster and the reposter, whereas unauthorised and uncredited reposts benefit only the reposter. Unauthorised and uncredited reposts are the subject of much controversy.
Reasons for Reposting
Content can be reposted to benefit the reposter by gaining them views, notes, follows, etc., to benefit the fandom by bringing greater attention to a work so that more fans may view it, or to benefit the original poster by providing them with a new audience on a website they don't frequent themselves.
Permission to Repost
Some fans chose to only repost art after requesting the original poster's permission. They may use a form letter to communicate across language barriers, i.e. when reposting from pixiv (a primarily Asian-language website) to tumblr or twitter.
Unauthorized Reposting
Unauthorized reposting of someone else's work is often considered art theft.
Writing
EbooksTree was a website that reposted fanfiction and sold it as if it were content generated by the traditional publishing industry. Tumblr posts began to call attention to its existence in 2015[1], and it was reported on by the official tumblr of Archive Of Our Own[2]. Tumblr users whose works had been reposted on EbooksTree began to file DMCA claims against the website as suggested by both FYeahCopyright and AO3org. Additionally, AO3 took steps to prevent works originally posted on AO3 from being downloadable via EbooksTree[3]. The EbooksTree website later went defunct due to unknown reasons, possibly the number of DMCA claims it received.
FictionHunt is a archive website that claims to back up stories posted to FanFiction.net to create a searchable index with links back to the story. If offered a "cached" version of the story as well should FF.net go offline or if the story is deleted, making it a point of dispute within fandom.
In recent years, especially since mid-2017 sites like Wattpad and fanfics.me also known as FFM have been on the list of biggest complaints about unauthorized reposting, the first of them even including plagiarism since many works have their names of titles and characters modified to avoid discovery by the author of the infraction. While the second site has been reported to repost works translated into Russian without any authorization from their authors.
One of the biggest points of criticism against the two is the difficulty of reporting such violations, especially when Wattpad only allows the author or a legal guardian appointed by him to make the complaint, while the FFM does not follow DMCA policies in addition to having very complex exclusion and reporting rules. As an example, we have the user teedo who compiled a short summary[4] of how to prevent his works from being linked to the site and how to remove them if that happens.
Art
Reposting art without crediting the original artist with the intent to pass said art off as one's own is also called "art theft". In recent years artists from all over the world have suffered with pages dedicated exclusively to this purpose, most of them are on social networks such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Perhaps the most complex case is what happened on the Artstation platform where not only were some works reposted, but also sold in NFT making it impossible for even the original owners to re-release their work. In 2021 the number of pages – mainly on Twitter – that not only repost but they also sell these works at millionaire prices while blocking the original artists, preventing them from making complaints.
Fan Comments
Further Reading
- Credit to artist* why you shouldn't repost fan art & use it for your fics/tiktoks/etc., Archived version by dory
References
- ^ Report on Ebooks tree from FYeahCopyright, posted 13 April 2015. (Accessed 24 January 2020.)
- ^ AO3org reblog of FYeahCopyright post stating that AO3org had also been receiving inquiries about EbooksTree. Posted 13 April 2015. (Accessed 24 January 2020.)
- ^ AO3org update on EbooksTree work theft, posted 15 April 2015. (Accessed 24 January 2020.)
- ^ "Show Comment Archive of Our Own". 2019-09-08. Archived from the original on 2022-02-24.